Bloody Knuckles
by RowArk
Summary: Prompt taken from imagineswanqueen tumblr, for the episode 'Lily': "Imagine Emma actually punching the guy and Regina taking care of the wounds on her knuckles." One-shot, short and sweet :) Enjoy


**Based on a prompt from .com for the episode ****_Lily_****: "Imagine Emma actually punching the guy and Regina taking care of the wounds on her knuckles". I made a small change and had her punch the wall instead. Picks up when Emma has the guy against the wall and Regina's trying to stop her. Short and sweet. Enjoy :)**

"Emma, it's not worth it."

Of course, Regina was right. Emma released the creep, who retreated back to the room he had come from. She was right, but that didn't make Emma any less angry. Without a second thought, she slammed her fist into the wall.

She let out a sharp cry and grabbed her hand.

"Emma!" Regina gasped, "what the hell?"

Emma looked at the wall. She'd left a nice hole in the drywall, but her hand was throbbing in agony now.

"Let's go," Emma said, turning to walk past Regina. Regina rolled her eyes and followed Emma back out to the Bug.

"Give me your keys," Regina said, holding out her hand. Emma went to protest, but decided against it, realizing that she probably couldn't hold the steering wheel right now.

She climbed into the passenger side, holding her hand tight. She could feel the dampness of blood on her knuckles.

"Can you move your fingers?" Regina asked, as she put the key in the ignition.

"Yes," Emma said.

"Show me."

"I'm fine. I'm not a child, Regina," Emma insisted.

Regina resisted the urge to tell her to stop acting like one, then. "We're not leaving until you show me. I need to know if we're going back to the hotel, or to the hospital."

Emma sighed, and held up her hand, wiggling her fingers through the immense pain. Regina cringed at the look of Emma's bleeding and bruised knuckles.

Despite Emma's objections as they drove, Regina stopped at a pharmacy on the way back to the hotel, and made her stay in the car as she ran in. She didn't need Emma making anymore of a spectacle of herself. Emma stretched out her hand while she waited for Regina. It was already starting to swell and hurt like a bitch.

When they got back to the hotel, Regina instructed Emma to go sit on the bed while she went to wash her hands. When she returned, she dropped the bag from the pharmacy and sat next to Emma, who was cross legged on the bed, holding her bleeding hand.

Regina had wet cloth from the bathroom, and she held out her left hand, palm up, to take Emma's.

"You really did a number on this," Regina commented, as she wiped the blood from Emma's raw, swollen knuckles.

"Yeah, well, I was pissed," Emma replied.

"I gathered that," Regina said, as she grabbed the alcohol from the bag, and got to work on cleaning out Emma's cuts. Emma winced, but didn't complain. She wouldn't admit it, but she kind of liked Regina taking care of her.

Emma tensed up and squeezed tightly on Regina's hand as she got to the deepest part of the wounds. Regina glanced up and noticed Emma had her eyes shut, and a tear was making her way down her cheek. Regina could tell the pain on Emma's face went a whole lot deeper than the injury on her hand.

When she finished with the alcohol, Regina lifted Emma's hand closer to her face, and blew cold air onto the open cuts. Emma's eyes fluttered open to meet Regina's, in surprise.

"Better?" Regina asked. Emma nodded, and wiped the stray tear away with her uninjured hand.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Regina asked, as she grabbed the gauze from the bag to wrap Emma's knuckles.

"What's there to talk about? He was talking shit about my friend, and I got mad," Emma said, with an obnoxiously nonchalant shrug.

"He insulted someone you haven't seen or spoken to in more than fifteen years," Regina corrected, "and you flew off the handle and nearly broke your own hand."

Emma looked down at her now wrapped hand. The wounds were covered, but the swelling was still apparent, as if the pain wasn't enough of a reminder. Regina hadn't let go of her hand yet, and she was in no rush to pull it away.

"I was a different person before I came to Storybrooke," Emma said, still looking down.

"Ok." Regina took Emma's uninjured hand in her other hand and squeezed it lightly, urging her to continue.

"Those things he said about Lily... honestly, Regina, he might as well have been talking about me."

"But he wasn't," Regina insisted, "that's not who you are."

"It's who I was. It's very well who I could have still been if Henry didn't bring me to Storybrooke. You didn't know me then, and you wouldn't have wanted to."

"I know you now, and that's all that matters. We all have a past, Emma. I'm certainly in no position to judge yours."

Emma stared down at her hands in Regina's. The touch was reassuring in a way she had never really experienced before.

"Emma," Regina continued, when the blonde didn't respond, "you and I both know all the ways that fate can screw a person over. We've both experienced it, first hand. But it's not always against us. No matter who you were before, fate brought you to Storybrooke, and who you are now is who you are."

"The Savior?" Emma asked, the resentment blatantly clear in her voice.

"No, just Emma, just as you are. Not a hero, not a villain, just a person with good and bad and pain and happiness and everything in between."

Emma's eyes met Regina's again. A small smile formed on her lips. "That's all I want."

"I know," Regina smiled, "because that's all I want. No matter what I've done or what stories you heard about me, you've always seen me as just Regina. I'm doing the same for you."

Emma shook her head. "But still, Lily wouldn't have even been in her situation if it wasn't for what my parents did."

"No, she wouldn't, but neither would you. What your parents did, that's on them, not you. It's not your job to save everyone, Emma."

Emma couldn't help the silent tears that were falling now. Regina hesitated a moment, and then let go of Emma's hands, to wrap her arms around her in a tight hug.

"You said you needed me," Emma whispered close to her ear, "but it looks like I'm the one who needs you."

"Maybe," Regina smiled, "or maybe we both need each other.".

**Tell me what you think :) Thanks for reading.**


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